We like it. Let’s put some mundane banalities into bullet point format to in no way support that.

Ravi Bopara

Proper batsman who bats at three for his county

One of the few batsmen in county cricket who you could consider to have been exceptional over the last few years

Young

Massively confident

Likely to get better

Michael Vaughan

Resilient and not intimidated by Test cricket

Going to get worse

Hasn’t actually scored a great many runs in a very long time

Owais Shah

Bit mental

Not done a right lot

Ian Bell

Bit flaky

Conclusion

In short, we have more faith in Ravi Bopara doing the job than his rivals.

He might look worse than Bell, but anyone who tells you that technique is the most important thing for a Test batsman doesn’t know what they’re talking about. Ask Virender ‘see ball, hit ball’ Sehwag or Graeme ‘clumpy’ Smith.

Vaughan’s temperament is perhaps his strength, but how Bopara will cope with Test cricket is still largely unknown. He might respond just as well. Bopara seems like the type who might respond to big situations. He thinks he’s better than everyone else and you don’t get far without thinking that.

We said Bopara shouldn’t be discarded when he was first dropped and that droppage might prove the making of him, as it did for Graham Gooch. Since droppage Bopara’s scored runs remorselessly. He’s scored them everywhere. He even scored a one-day double hundred, which is just mental.

However, arguably the greatest benefit for the nation is that while he’s at the crease he’ll be a long way from any tiling jobs that need doing.

Ian Bell might be a bit flakey, but then again he might not. I wouldn’t like to say either way. Time might tell, of course. But then again, even time might not lead us to a conclusive answer on this point.